1. Chinese Verse of the Day:
辛棄疾 (1140 - 1207)
(南鄉子) 登京口北固亭有懷
何處望神州？滿眼風光北固樓。
千古興亡多少事？悠悠。不盡長江滾滾流。
年少萬兜鍪，坐斷東南戰未休。
天下英雄誰敵手？曹劉。生子當如孫仲謀。
2. According to a Chinese saying, tea is a drink fit for immortals or deities ("仙品").
At the "suggestion" of my Mother, I have been drinking Chinese tea as my main beverage for the last three years.
My Mother made the suggestion out of concern for my health, and I am glad I have taken up her suggestion as I attribute some of my health improvement to tea drinking.
3. I am not a connoisseur of tea drinking; I only drink tea that is commonly available.
The following is my tea drinking habit nowadays:
(a) For diversity, I drink four kinds of tea.
(b) I alternate between two bottles that are 2 litres each.
(c) One bottle is for Pu-erh tea only.
(d) The other bottle is for Shoumei (or Sow Mee), Tieguanyin, and Liu'an tea.
(e) I finish one bottle before I go for the second bottle.
So I am drinking three bottles of Pu-erh tea for every one bottle of the other three kinds of tea.
And I can almost finish two 2 litres bottles of tea on an average day.
4. Because there is a very sizable Chinese Canadian community in the Metro Vancouver area, there are lots of Chinese goods available here.
And Chinese tea is available in many stores.
If one is not a connoisseur and go for the pricey stuff, one can buy a package of Chinese tea for between 1 to 3 Canadian dollars.
And if one drinks around 2 litres of tea a day, then one package of tea can usually last between three to four weeks.
Tea drinking can be a very economical affair.
5. My late father used to drink Pu-erh tea and I grow up drinking it.
So when I started drinking tea as my main beverage three years ago, I have an affinity for Pu-erh tea.
Pu-erh tea has the ability to help our digestive system to break-down fat and oily foods; that is one reason why it is my main kind of tea.
My Mother told me she does not drink Pu-erh tea after supper because it "cleans her intestines" and makes her hungry at night.
I second her opinion on this point.
6. Wikipedia on the beneficial health effect of Pu-erh tea ("Pu-erh tea"):
Scientific studies report that consumption of pu'er tea leaves significantly suppressed the expression of fatty acid synthase (FAS) in the livers of rats; gains in body weight, levels of triacylglycerol, and total cholesterol were also suppressed.The compositions of chemical components found to have been responsible for these effects (catechins, caffeine, and theanine) varied dramatically between pu-erh, black, oolong, and green teas.
Specific mechanisms through which chemicals in pu'er tea inhibit the biosynthesis of cholesterol in the laboratory have been suggested.
Pu'er tea has also been found to have antimutagenic and antimicrobial properties in vitro. (In vitro studies do not necessarily correlate to medicinal effects. An article in Microbiologist, The magazine of the Society for Applied Microbiology, in March 2008, Vol 9 No 1, p35, found that tea had many in vitro antimicrobial properties against many organisms; for example English Breakfast tea at the concentration used for drinking had significant antimicrobial effect on the lethal anthrax bacillus (Bacillus anthracis) and many others, but this did not make it a useful treatment for anthrax.)
Pu'er tea is widely believed in Chinese cultures to counteract the unpleasant effects of heavy alcohol consumption. In traditional Chinese medicine it is believed to invigorate the spleen and inhibit "dampness." In the stomach, it is believed to reduce heat and "descends qi".
7. I drink the other three kinds of tea mainly for diversity.
My Mother told me that Liu'an tea has the characteristic of being suitable for any age group.
A person of any age can drink Liu'an tea without any adverse side effects.
8. Names, Words and Phrases:
Liu'an tea (Traditional Chinese: 六安茶; Simplified Chinese: 六安茶).
Pu-erh tea (Traditional: 普洱茶; Simplified: 普洱茶).
Shoumei tea (Traditional: 壽眉茶; Simplified: 寿眉茶).
Tea (Traditional: 茶; Simplified: 茶).
Tieguanyin tea (Traditional: 鐵觀音茶; Simplified: 铁观音茶).
References:
"Fermented tea", Wikipedia - The Free Encyclopedia,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fermented_tea
(accessed 2013-02-16).
"Pu-erh tea", Wikipedia - The Free Encyclopedia,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pu-erh_tea
(accessed 2013-02-16).
"Shoumei tea", Wikipedia - The Free Encyclopedia,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shoumei_tea
(accessed 2013-02-16).
"Tea", Wikipedia - The Free Encyclopedia,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tea
(accessed 2013-02-16).
"Tieguanyin", Wikipedia - The Free Encyclopedia,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tieguanyin
(accessed 2013-02-16).
"茶", Wikipedia - The Free Encyclopedia,
http://zh.wikipedia.org/zh-hk/%E8%8C%B6
(accessed 2013-02-16).
"普洱茶", Wikipedia - The Free Encyclopedia,
http://zh.wikipedia.org/zh-hk/%E6%99%AE%E6%B4%B1%E8%8C%B6
(accessed 2013-02-16).
"鐵觀音", Wikipedia - The Free Encyclopedia,
http://zh.wikipedia.org/zh-hk/%E9%93%81%E8%A7%82%E9%9F%B3
(accessed 2013-02-16).
"辛棄疾", Wikipedia - The Free Encyclopedia,
http://zh.wikipedia.org/zh-hk/%E8%BE%9B%E6%A3%84%E7%96%BE
(accessed 2013-02-16).
End.
